What do you do when you're stumped?

So, there's a common thing that people who play adventure games do when they start to get stuck, which is to methodically go through and try using everything in their inventory. I'm wondering what else people do when they're out of ideas -- for example, maybe you take your hand off the mouse and think, or you wander around through all the environments but don't click on anything, or you go back and talk to all the people again. (Maybe you immediately go look on the forums for a hint or call your brother-in-law for advice.) What's your approach?

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After the initial frustration, I just combine the things in my inventory with everything else I can find. Often it turns out I just missed some objects while exploring. It can also happen that I forgot to talk to someone about something, but usually I exhaust all dialogue options, so that doesn't happen often... but anyway, mostly I just retrace my steps to see if I haven't overlooked anything (which can be very tedious and frustrating, but rewarding if I find the solution on my own), and if I feel I understand what the puzzle is about but just can't seem to find the object the game designer wanted me to use, I'll just look online for the solution - I don't care much for pixel-hunting.

When I get stuck I stop and think about what it is exactly that I'm stock on, then I think of the most likely sollutions or locations where the sollution would be at, and then I systematically eleminate all possibilities until I solve the problem. If that doesn't work, then I go, "ARGGGG!!!" and then go look for a hint online.

With Sam and Max that hasn't happened too often, but when it does I've found just turning it off and coming back later helps. But most of the time I try talking to everybody again, or seeing if I missed something. I used to try all my inventory items, but I think about things a little more before I do that now. What would help make that less tedious--hint, hint--is if the main character didn't have a stock response at all, but commented on how sane or ridiculous each idea was in turn.

But unless I've exhausted everything I can think of, I never go looking for help.

I cruise around to think about what I need to do and where I can find my solution. If I get burned out on this, I usually just give up for the day. I almost always find my solution if I can sleep on it, since the key to most puzzles is hidden in plain sight. That's why I bug everyone at the play tests when i'm stuck.

I start to take the game apart on a fundamental "somebody designed this" level. I save in a central hub of sorts that is equidistant from all of the extremities of the world, then I go to one extreme and mess with it there, if nothing new happens, I load and wander off to the other extreme part of the game world. It speeds up all the wandering around. If the game has not been all too much fun, or if it is littered with ridiculous puzzles (such as: use love potion custard in outhouse, use octopus in outhouse, give fishmonger prunes, after tentacle rape get fishmonger's belt buckle, yay ftw) I may immediately go to the walkthrough. If there is a lot of pixel hunting (such as with early Revolution Soft. games) I am more likely to go straight to a walkthrough without wandering around looking for conspicuous pixels.

I have to give it to you guys, though. You've taken a one-click interface, which removes some of the fun complexity of the game such as the look at verb (you may want to give a good hard thought to bringing it back, please, oh please) and managed to make a fairly complex gaming experience -- moreso with episodes four through six than with the previous three, but I guess it took some jelling and experimentation to figure out the best ways of doing things.

I think about what would be most logical to do (in that specific game universe), and if I have got abit in to the game before I got stuck, I'm trying to go over everything that has happend so far, and think about what the heck the designers want me to do next (and possibly some backtracknig, going through dialogs I might have missed due to my lack of knowlege of the english language), and if nothing of this work I traditionally use everything on everything for a few minutes, after those painful minutes I get bored and skip directly to the walk-through part.
What can I say, I hate when the story/"flow of jokes" stop :P

So, there's a common thing that people who play adventure games do when they start to get stuck, which is to methodically go through and try using everything in their inventory. I'm wondering what else people do when they're out of ideas -- for example, maybe you take your hand off the mouse and think, or you wander around through all the environments but don't click on anything, or you go back and talk to all the people again. (Maybe you immediately go look on the forums for a hint or call your brother-in-law for advice.) What's your approach?

I usually stop and think. Then I go back to see if I missed something. Then I stop for a day and come back and try it again with a fresh mind. If I can't figure it out then, I come to the forums and see if someone posted a hint. I've only had to do the latter once in Sam & Max season 1

during Reality 2.0 with the RGB puzzle

. It was a logical puzzle, I just couldn't get my mind wrapped around it for some reason.

I will usually check other locations, talk to more people .. go have a look around.. think about what I have to do..if i'm still stuck i'll have a break from the game and think about the puzzle then.. and come back to it.. a lot of the "did you do ..." play it again stuff was done when I was stuck.. theres a lot you miss when you just rush through the game

have you ever get stuck on an fps game? heheh I did once in Doom.
well for adventure games, I very much agree with Mel except the last resort of uninstalling... it can turns out to be a bug! and for Sam & Max, what better place to find or seek help than this lively forum (or maybe asking directly to Emily)?

I used to get stuck in FPSs way more often because the textures and level design were all too similar, so I would run around in circles too much and give up. Starting around the release of Half Life, level design got a lot more varied and logical and I don't really get stuck anymore.

I usually have a friend over while I'm playing and almost all of the time we can figure it out between the two of us. If we're stumped, then we start drinking beer and talking about stuff until we figure it out/don't care anymore. Usually the answer comes eventually.

Well, these days I tend to go to a walkthrough quicker than I really should... it's terrible but i've gotten lazy. All this easily obtained hints... mmmm.
I try to find spoiler free ones though.
I get stuck, I walk about for a bit to see if I missed anything, have a think.. find a walkthrough.
Back in the days before widely available internet assistance however, I wandered, thought, asked friends and family for suggestions, walked about a bit more, got bored and left the game for the day. Annoyingly the Lucasarts Sam & Max had me horribly stumped at one point. Took me weeks before a cousin finally pointed out "oh, there's a magnifying lens in the background there, see? it's really hard to make out but it's there"
Bah... I simply hadn't noticed the thing.
I have such fond fond memories of completing so many adventure games without walkthroughs, something i seldom do these days... either games have gotten harder (doubt it) or i've gotten lazier... i'm going with the later.

However... My endless undying respect goes to my cousin Quentin who manged to actually finish KQ7 WITHOUT a walkthrough... my god... that game is frustratingly impossible.

After I have tried everything I can think of I go away from the game for a bit and come back a day or so later with a fresh perspective.

Usually the reason I get stuck in games is when I have actually figured out the answer to the puzzle but I can't figure out how the game designers want me to solve it. Perfect example: in "abe Lincoln must die" I

knew I had to get the Nuke targeting device from Bosco's but I couldn't figure out where it was in the store

. I can't stand stuff like that, because I wasn't stuck because I couldn't figure out the puzzle, I was stuck because I couldn't figure out where to click! In those cases you just need a break to relax and then come back when you can calmly try things again.

Step One: Give up and go and start making tea
Step Two: Have idea, run back and try it
Step three: Find idea works. Proceed to play game for another 30 minutes
Step Four: Remember tea and go back to find it has gone cold. Drink it anyway and make more.

Optional: Replace all instances of 'Tea' with 'Coffee' depending on the time of day.

I tend to lean back and overthink things. I don't like to just combine stuff at random so I try to avoid that as long as I can. In my opinion combinations or actions should be logical (based on the given universe obviously, S&M is a sliiightly wacky universe;-)

Often I do know WHAT I want to do to fix something but don't know HOW I can do that in the game. For example; I did know I wanted

1 When I get stumped I go back to see what I've missed.
2 Then I start to think in a more logical way.
3 After this I try combine everything with everything and talk with everyone again. Sometimes I go back to previous saved stages to redo the steps.
4 Then I get away from the game, sleep and the next time, try to see the things with a diferent perspective. I can hold this for 2 or 3 days.
5 By now, I considering to look online walktroughs. I really start to walk trough the house, thinking.
6 I look online help.

Usually works on the step 2 or 3.
I'm playing Monkey Island 2 and I got stuck in the governor Phatt book part. I'm on step 5 and had this logical tought. I have to take the book without him noticing. Then come the Indiana Jones idol scene and everything fall into place. There's no better sensation!
But happens situations like the Kate Capsize near-grog puzzle. I had missed the part that the barman say about her having a near-grog bottle. Neither the barman or Kate talk about this anymore later. There's no way I could know how to solve this puzzle. I keep trying to win the grog contest in all of silly ways. I was piss to look for online help and piss to realize that the puzzle was solved that way! It's curse the designer time!!

When I'm hopelessly, hopelessly stuck, I generally just try everything with everything, even if I know the combination is illogical. But I'm not always provided with an interface that allows me to do this very quickly, or sometimes the environments are simply too vast to permit the use of such tactics. It's in these cases that I will turn to a walkthrough. But I generally try my best not to.

However, with that being said, when it comes to twiddling puzzles, I will almost invariably seek out walkthroughs.

Replace 'Cry' with 'Scream in Frustration' and you've got my list as well.

I would have thought you were the manifestation of serenity after the way you sneaked past the sheriff in his office in Simon the Sorcerer 3D. If I had managed to force myself to play that game at all, I probably would have given up on it then.